Broken

We live in a broken world. The evidence of the shattered pieces lay all around us. Poverty. Hunger. Abuse. Hate. Disease. Disaster.

It’s not meant to be this way. We all know it. We all feel it somewhere deep inside of ourselves. Something sweet and soft and true tells us that we don’t belong here in the shambles… we can’t LIVE like that.

So how to live?

I’ll tell you what my kids are teaching me about that.

With the beauty, innocence, and pure joy of youth, comes a brilliant, shiny, luminous light. If we nurture that light, if we give it room to grow, and let it shine as far and as wide as it has will to travel… the cracks and broken pieces become less hideous.

As my kids navigate the world that they have been born into, they have occasionally stumbled across broken pieces. They have not once turned away. They have not once been too busy. They have not once judged the wounded. But every time… EVERY SINGLE TIME… they have asked how they can help. They are inherently doing what they were created to do… to shine their light where brokenness has made darkness.

I have a favorite song by Sidewalk Prophets called “Live Like That.” The words nudge me often these days…

Sometimes I think
What will people say of me
When I’m only just a memory
When I’m home where my soul belongs

Was I love
When no one else would show up
Was I Jesus to the least of those
Was my worship more than just a song

I want to live like that
And give it all I have
So that everything I say and do
Points to You

…

It goes on… so beautiful. The meaning and melody. But it gets me thinking every time… am I living like that? Am I shining my light?

Well, I made a decision that in 2013 I would not hide my light. I would go wherever I felt nudged to go and I would go with the greatest childlike gusto I could muster.

As has often been the case in the past 7 years, my children are leading the way.

Some of you might know that our family has begun to raise funds for kids cancer at the impassioned pleas of our little lights… they saw a broken piece and determined that there MUST be a way to put it together. This year, for the first time, CT and JJ learned about cancer and what it can do to people. They cried when they found out that even little kids could be struck with the disease and worse yet, that they sometimes didn’t get better. And then… they immediately said, “well, how do you help kids that are sick with cancer?” And just like that, the darkness cleared a little.

For the past few months, we have been on a journey together. We are hearing stories of hope and healing. Stories of loss and grief. Stories that will remain with our family for the rest of our lives. We are thankful for all that this process is doing in our family, and we are thankful to all those that are passionately joining with us in raising awareness. Even more, we are inspired by those little warriors that are fighting the battle of their lives, and their families beside them.

So, if you see me around… and you ask me if I’m nervous about losing my hair… well, these days, you might just get a lost look. It stopped being about my hair a long time ago, and it started being about living like THAT.

It’s easy sometimes to get stuck in the brokenness. To wallow there and let it break you right along with it. We are choosing not to wallow. We are choosing do something about it. To love. To care. To take notice and create action. We are choosing to help in the only way we could think of helping.

I wonder… if you looked around… what broken pieces could you fix?

Ask your kids… they’ll have some good ideas.

If you would like more information about what our family is doing to help with programs for kids with cancer and their families, please visit our website at:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Matt 25:35-36